6/2/10

Would you believe this is my first time making beef short ribs? I can't believe it either. I don't know why I haven't used these sooner because they are the perfect sponges for sauces. I remember always passing them by at Whole Foods thinking what the heck am I gonna do with those? They don't look very meaty to me, and to be honest they really don't. They look all fatty, but underneath all that fatty is the hidden gem of tender meat. Really tender. The only downfall is they are not cheap--very expensive, but it was worth it. A meal you won't soon forget. And as I said before they are the perfect vessel for sauces, and you all know how I love my sauce.Please bear with me, I think I got all the ingredients for the ribs; I kind of used what came to mind and/or what it needed as I went along. But you're all smart little foodies and know to taste your sauce as you go along and see what it needs, right? Good.

Preheat oven to 260 degrees.Mix soy sauce, sugar, oil, vinegar, ginger, garlic and red pepper in a bowl.Place ribs in a dutch oven and pour sauce over.Cover and cook about 4 hours, then move them around a bit, cook for another hour with the cover off. Check to see if they are done (the meat should be really tender and falling off bones, if not, just cook a bit longer).Remove ribs from crockpot. And at this point I like to make a reduction sauce using the sauce along with a bit more brown sugar & ketchup (taste as you go along and add what you think it needs); reduce till nice and thick. (this should be enough for four people).

First make dressing mix all the ingredients but the potatoes and scallions in a dish and chill.Chop up potatoes into med. size chunks. Boil in salted water until just tender. Drain very well, I mean very well, and let them be and cool off a bit. OR if you want a cold salad this would be the time to chill them in the fridge for a while. When ready add the sauce to the potatoes and stir, then add in the scallions. (this should be enough for four people)

I'm still waiting for the delivery boy to bring my portion of the ribs.....still waiting.....Cook for 4 hours? I can only imagine how tender these were. My grandmother cooks her ribs for that long and I definitely need to learn that patience. The asian flavors would be divine. I'm proud of you, Chica.

First off, I have been a long time silent reader and lover of your blog and the balsamic vinegar potato salad sounds great. But what I want to enlighten you to is real balsamic vinegar. Vinegar that is aged 12 to 18 years, not the commercial vinegars that are 1 to 2 years, they don't even compare. If you ever get to Michigan or have the will/funds to buy Fustini's vinegars online(I'm a poor graduate student, so I have to settle to restock whenever I am up in MI), I promise you, you will never want to go back to store bought vinegar. It is so good and sweet and complex you can eat it out of a spoon, we have made made cocktails by mixing their peach white balsamic and vodka. The link to their site it below, I urge you to try it, it is amazing.

I love doing short ribs but my fave aspect is the next day I debone, quick sear in a pan with garlic & oil for a warm up & crust & then sandwich them up. Asian slaw & crusty bread then a lime juice..holy heck!!!

I made them once with an Ina Garten recipe, but they didn't look like yours! My mother made them all the time, but never wrote down the recipe. (Which happened a lot with her.)I really like the glaze and on top of the balsamic potato salad, it's darn near a perfect dish.Wow! on the photos.

Yes there are the very expensive balsamic vinegars that would be immensely suited to your very tasty potato salad... however...aged vinegar does come at a much greater cost not suited for every pocket. What I do, is buy a much cheaper variety (always from Modena)...and reduce the heck out of it...until a beautiful flavoured syrup comes out of it.Warning: make sure you have time for this and most importantly that you air our your home while proceeding. I learnt the hard way. My house stank of vinegar for at least two days...very unpleasant.Hope this helped someone.Thanks for sharing your recipe and I wish you a great flavourful day ;o)Claudia

about vanilla sugar blog

Unique eats, creative recipes, as simple as possible.What drives me to create? Seeing dishes in restaurants, meals created on TV, recipes in cookbooks/online, and I always think to myself why didn’t they add this or why did they leave out that? Love to question, love to research, and love to learn about combining different flavors and textures in recipes.Recipe creations please email: vanillasugarblog@aol.com